Steps in the Right Direction: Flattop Mt. and Hallets Peak

July 17, 2011 Flat Top Mountain up to Hallett’s Peak Hiked 10 miles Total miles 87.9

3238 elevation gain Up to 12,713

We woke to blue skies today after going to bed with rain and thunder. Off to Flattop Mountain today. My notes from last year say that we made it in 2 hours and 50 minutes. We keep that in mind and talk about when we did this hike last year what we had done before to work up to it… We decide that we had done one less hike before trying Flattop . We certainly have been trying to get up as high as we can in elevation that is possible to hike without being closed due to snow. Since there is lots of snow here many of the hikes are affected by it. In fact the Old Fall River road has yet to be plowed as the snow is still to deep there.

Yesterday on our drive to Estes from Snowmass we stopped in at the Indian Peaks area to see what information we could find. We found a happy volunteer who is retired from being a fireman in the Chicago area. She thought our ‘accents’ sounded familiar…She said she loves living in Colorado and doing volunteer work for the National Forest Service. Hmmm, there is something to think about. Retirement... Oh, that is right we have years left to work.

Back to the hike, the skies seem very hazy today even with the blue sky. Kathi thinks it is from the rain last night. Well whatever it is the haze makes for pour vista pictures. We pass some group of four kids somewhere in their teens and early twenties along with four adults. Of the four adults one guy was a very cool hiker! He had on his John Deere cap! Got to love that!! The other guy we think was a bit of a trail hog as Kathi and I wanted to pass him and he was not pulling over. Kathi thinks he was having a testosterone moment and thinking his manhood was in jeopardy if he let two forty something women pass him. His lack of physical fitness soon caught up with him and he was sucking some pretty serious air and had to stop and take a breather. No matter who they are, they all are so easy to pass when they are out of shape! Ohh that includes me too J

We do have to cross several spots of snow that has managed to hide in the trees. The trail was easy to follow so it was not much of a hindrance. The last pitch from the horse hitching rack up to the top of was very large snow patch. The snow was very deep, but we were up there early enough so we did not sink in and were able to walk right up the snow up to the top. This year we top out at 2 hours and 30 minutes. Faster than last year! Kathi thinks it is because we stopped and chatted last year…We put on a long sleeve and press on towards Halletts Peak.

Kathi standing with a full grown pine that has been stunted by the cold and strong wind. Called Krumholtz.

Hallets Peak seems like it should take much longer to get to the top as it seems to just stick way up in the air from where you are on top of Flattop. It only take 25 minutes to rock pick our way up to the top. We take a few pictures and see a dark cloud heading towards Longs Peak. We ponder for about 2 seconds whether to eat lunch at the top or back down on the top of Flattop. Just like that we know we will be heading down. Thunder rumbles from yonder Longs Peak way. We head down. Within three minutes we are going down as fast as we can, the thunder just got fast and furious. Kathi and I are running as fast as we can across the rocky terrain. I just hate it when I am out of breath and going down hill. It can only mean trouble is close. We are not alone as there are two others with us. If you remember back to last year there are three things that attract lightening; tallest, sharpest, and biggest. Once again I am trying to be the skinniest, shortest, tiniest thing out there.

We get to the bottom of the large snow field only to find the four young adults and four adults just below the snow field. Of course the kids want to get to the top and the four adults are trying to yell and wave them back. Ding-a-ling kids… Keep this in mind: there is no summit that is more important than common sense! I guess I will keep that forward in my mind also!

It rained and hailed all the way down. The lighting and thunder seemed to just stay hovered over at Longs so at least we did not have to dodge any white bolts flying out of the sky.